Indian teen invents gadget that could transform dementia care

IDuring the blissful summer that Hemesh Chadalavada spent with his grandmother in 2018, the couple watched endless movies and ate her chicken biryani. Late one evening, as Chadalavada, then 12, sat alone in front of the television, Jayasree got up in her nightgown and went to make tea at her home in Guntur, southern India.

After returning to her bedroom, Chadalavada went to the kitchen and discovered that his grandmother, then 63, had left the gas on.

“She had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, but I was still in shock. What would have happened if I hadn’t been there?” says Chadalavada.

Chadalavada knew Jayasree as both a loving grandmother and a dynamic, successful woman, who had a high-profile career as a civil servant and interacted with top politicians and policymakers in the state of Telangana.

But Alzheimer’s disease changed her completely. He says: “She used to get up at three or four in the morning and go out, thinking she was on the train.”

During that happy summer, Chadalavada, a self-proclaimed nerd from Hyderabad who loved robotics, decided he wanted to invent a gadget to help people like his grandmother.

Chadalavada, now 17 years old, is about to produce a device that detects when people with Alzheimer’s disease fall or wander, which is beyond the reach of the devices currently available.

The light and compact Alpha Monitor, which can be worn as a badge or bracelet, sounds an alarm when the wearer begins to move and alerts a caregiver if the patient falls or wanders off.